


Ninjago Space Adventures - August

by TheDukeOfKansas



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, Ninjago Calendar 2021 - August, Season 6 Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28518297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDukeOfKansas/pseuds/TheDukeOfKansas
Summary: Jay and Nya are looking for clues about the infamous Space-Pirate, Nadakhan (and the whereabouts of their missing friends) on an abandoned Jungle Planet. While looking however, they find something, or rather, someone, that might just be the answer to all their questions.My piece for the Ninjago 2021 Fan-Calendar!
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: Ninjago Calendar





	Ninjago Space Adventures - August

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Piece for the fan-made Ninjago 2021 Calendar! I wrote the story for August, and I also drew the picture for it too! Its a Space AU for season 6. 
> 
> A lot of really talented artists and authors worked really long and hard on this project, so I highly recommend checking out the other months entries too! You can see them here: https://ninjago-calendar.tumblr.com/
> 
> Anyways, I've rambled long enough, hope you enjoy the story!

Ninjago Space Adventures  
-

The library was a dead end. Of course it was, when wasn’t a library going to be a dead end? In every single detective Holo Film that Jay had seen Zane gush over, the library was almost always the least likely place to give any helpful information.

“Nya…” Jay groaned, head face down on the table, forehead stuck to the pages of another un-helpful book from the sweat from his brow, “I wanna find the others as much as you do, but we’ve been looking through these dusty books since we got here, can’t we try somewhere else? ” They had been in the stuffy, overheated Library for hours, going over every single little thing that they could find about the infamous space-pirate, Nadakhan. 

Nya paused her reading and shot a quick glare at him, “And where are we supposed to look? The Bounty still needs to finish rebooting it’s system, and until it’s finished with the auto-repair, we don’t even know where to look!” She looked back down into the book, her face determined, “Besides, we’re stupid lucky to even find a library in a place like this! And in case you forgot, everywhere else is uninhabited jungle. So unless you want to try asking the Tiger Widows for help, this place is our best bet for finding Nadakhan, and hopefully the others.”

Jay winced at the mention of the behemoth spiders that prowled the expansive greenery of the planet. When he and Nya had first crashed the Bounty, Jay had the unfortunate displeasure of meeting one of the most ferocious predators in the galaxy, and had been the closest to being a snack than he had ever been in his life. But knowing his luck (and job), it probably wasn’t going to be the last time he would almost be eaten.

Jay and his assortment of friends are what some would call “Heros”, and for the most part, he agreed with the term. Though if you were to ask him about it right now, he felt less like a hero and more like a collage student doing late night review for a test he forgot to study for. In this case, it was less about studying, and more about finding where his friends had disappeared to. He and his friends had been recovering from the last “adventure” they had been dragged through, when a man had approached them about a job. 

He didn’t give them a name, but he did tell them that he had been looking for as much information about “Nadakhan” as they could get their hands on. He was supposedly an infamous Space-Pirate that had terrorized the cosmos for over a decade before he suddenly disappeared off of the radar, everything and everyone associated with him going with. The stranger said he had tried looking into him himself, but that there was only so much clearance a regular joe had compared to the 5-time champions of the universe. 

Admittedly, when Jay looked back on it, everything about the guy spelled suspicious, from the oddly specific job to the way the guy refused to divulge anything about himself or why he even needed the information in the first place. Heck, Kai was dead set on not taking the job, and on more than one occasion let everyone know how much of a bad idea it was, loudly. 

But the simple fact of the matter was that despite having saved the Galaxy more than once, being a hero really wasn’t that good of a paying job. With how banged up they got their ship (and home) last time, their pockets were on the verge of starvation. And the stranger was offering to pay upfront, and handsomely for their time. 

So, despite the warning signs, they took up the job. 

At first, it was uneventful. They couldn’t find a single trace of the guy, even by the amount of hear-say that there was on the Space-Pirate, most stories were so blown out of proportion to go so far as to say he was the prince of a dying star, or even a cosmic being of space dust and stars. They couldn’t find specifics on him, and not a single trace of written word or holographic news articles had anything to say about him. And if it wasn’t for the spoken word on him, it was as though the guy didn’t even exist. For weeks Jay and the team poured over what ever little gram of information they could get on him. Tensions grew high as the stress from hitting dead end after dead end got to a boiling point to where everyone felt it would be best to just look on their own for the time being, and report back should anyone find anything. 

That had been over a week ago, and no matter how many times Jay and Nya had tried to contact the others, the coms always screamed static at them. And just as they had decided to start tracking them down through the com-tracker feature, a freak space electrical storm shut down almost every single device and system in the Destiny's Bounty. It took every ounce of Jay’s strength just to keep the gravity, shields and oxygen systems online long enough for them to crash onto the planet. 

Peeling his head from the damp pages, Jay stiffly stood out of the chair that had fused to his spine over the past hour, and stiffly walked around the room for yet another book to fruitlessly stare at for another hour. The library, and the small air-port town it was a part of, was one of the few places on the green planet that him and Nya were able to land in while the Destiny's Bounty needed repairs. And even then, the town itself was still bursting at the seams with flowers and plant-life of all shapes and sizes, towering trees encasing the entire thing. The entire town was devoid of any sort of life, save for the plants themselves and the nightmare fuel giant spiders. 

The library itself was old. Concerningly old. Rickety shelves of crumbling books and papers filled the entirety of the building to the brim, Jay could hardly move anywhere without bumping into a forgotten pile of stacked books and having them topple over. When he and Nya had first entered, they tried finding any sort of librarian that could at least point them in the right direction, but all they found was an empty desk covered in a layer of dust. 

Jay stood in front of a particularly decrepit looking shelf, dreading what this was going to do to his already suffering nose. He didn’t even bother looking at the book he pulled randomly from the shelf, when a low rumble was heard from behind the shelf. Previously unseen lines on the wall gave way, as the bookshelf itself swung backwards, a small wooden set of stairs leading out from the entrance. Dumbfounded, Jay took a step back. “Hey, uh, Nya?” he called out, unsure of what he was seeing.

“Yeah Jay?” Nya replied, her attention still focused on the book.

“You know how you told me to tell you if I found anything?” 

She didn’t look up, “Yeah…?”

He looked back at her, a little incredulous that he still didn’t have her attention. Rolling his eyes, he sarcastically called out, “Now, it may just be the centuries old dust in my eyes, but would you say that finding a secret entrance counts?”

That got her attention. Almost immediately, before the book that was in her hands fell to the ground Nya was right right next to Jay, staring down at the dark passage before them. Nya was thrilled at the first sign of progress they had had in hours, her smile covering most of her face “Jay! This is great! How’d you find it?”

Jay grinned, “You know that one trope in mystery vids?” Nya raised a skeptical eyebrow at him, but could see what he was getting at, “ You mean the one about the book in the bookshelf being a secret lever?”

“The very one.”

Nya shook her head “Well, someone either watched too many bad detective vids, or they had something worth hiding.” Jay peered down into the inky black. “Why not both?” He then looked back at her, and unsure look on his face. “You think it’s worth checking out?” Nya gave the red-head a look. “Would you prefer to keep looking through the books?” Her tone grew mischievous , “I’m sure we’ll find something... Eventually.” Jay didn’t let her begin to entertain that idea before he made his way down the stairs. “No, no thanks, this works fine for me.” Chuckling at his theatrics, Nya rolled her eyes and followed him down the steps. 

The walk down was a short one, eventually leading down into a small cavern-like room, sun light pouring in through an unseen hole in the roof, the two explores could make out multiple plants and trees overgrown throughout the area, and two metal doors that stood atop a small flight of stairs. Jay turned around and looked all across the room. “Just what do you think this place is?” 

“I’m not sure,” Nya answered as she walked up the steps, “But if I were to guess, this looks like the entrance to some sort of... Ancient laboratory…?” Jay followed behind her, “Old trope, old bookshelf, old lab, is there anything about this library that isn’t decrepit?”

“Only one way to find out,” Ny replied, pulling at the overgrown roots that had managed to seal the entrance shut. “Help me with the doors for a sec.” Jay obeyed, and helped tear away at the plants. It didn’t take long for the doors to be freed, and when they opened, all that the two remaining hero’s could see of the mystery room was darkness. Hesitantly, Jay started walking in, his hands fumbling along the side of the wall for a light switch, Nya following close. “Eugh, I cant see a thing in here, maybe a little bit of light might…” his hands finally found purchase on something that felt like a switch, and with a small “Ah ha!” of triumph, he flipped it.

The reaction was immediate. 

A loud automated voice cried over hidden speakers as red, flashing lights illuminated the room “Error, Error, System reboot initiated, System Reboot initiated!”

Nya spun towards her friend, “Jay!” He flung his hands up in front of him as though he were being held at gun-point, “What?!” he cried, “I didn’t do anything!”

“Well you obviously did something! Everything’s going crazy in here, I didn’t touch anything, so what did you do?!!”

“I couldn’t see where I was going, so I tried to find a light switch, sue me!” Just as Nya was about to berate him some more, the doors behind the two swung shut, effectively locking them in the room. Hurriedly, they ran towards the doors, pushing and pulling with everything the had, but no matter what they did, the metal doors did not budge. Nya shot a panicked glare at Jay, “The doors arn’t opening!” Jay shot back incredulously, “Thats not my fault!” The back and forth went for long enough, that the two didn’t even notice that the flashing lights and sound system had stopped, and a tall figure looming up from behind them. 

“Hello!”

They both jumped violently at the noise, slamming themselves against the back of the doors. 

“Who are you supposed to be?!”

“What are you supposed to be?!”

The tall figure smiled down on them. It was what looked like an android that had been made centuries before. He was made out of old, rusted copper, a layer of dust and grime falling down as it began to speak to them, the old plating catching the light. “I am the Electronic, Companion, Helping, Object, and/or E.C.H.O, and I am a personal assistant android! My soul purpose in life is to help those who cannot help themselves! Is there anything I can do for you today?” The three stood in an awkward silence, but despite the atmosphere, the robot continued to smile, completely unaware of the mood.

“Uh... “ Jay looked at Nya helplessly, unsure of what to say next. Hesitantly, he asked, “Can you, uh, open the doors, by any chance?” The response was immediate, Echo smiled wider. “Yes! This is within my parameters of use!” He gently pulled the two behind him, “Please step back for your own safety!” 

Echo placed his fingers on the thin line between the two doors, and a loud whirring noise began to fill the room as he began to pull the doors away from each other, the sheet metal crumpling beneath his hands. 

“Whoa! You’ve got some muscle on you!” Jay praised, him and Nya walking through the opening.

“I am a mix of copper alloy and aluminum, I am not composed of any organic material-” Jay stopped him mid-info dump, patting the robot’s shoulder. “It’s a, uh, joke bud…”

“Oh! I see! I joke, ha ha ha…” The mechanical laughter continued as Jay and Nya started walking up the stairs back to the library. “Hahaha, yeah, well, thanks for the help, Echo? But we really need to get back to work.” Echo stoped laughing, and perked up, “Work? Is there anything that I may help you with?” 

“Thanks, but no thanks, pal, there’s not much you can do-”

They made it to the top of the staircase, Echo following close behind. “This is untrue! I have been programmed with a wide assortment of helpful and useful features for the sole purpose of-”

“Helping people, yeah, we get the point bud,” Jay interjected, “But unless you have any information on where our friends are, or anything about Nadakhan, which is impossible, we’ll have to say thanks but no-” 

“Understood! Now searching data banks for: Nadakhan…” Another loud whirring noise erupted from deep within Echo, his eyes taking on a yellow glow as he slouched forward. Jay winced at the noise, leaning close to Nya, “Eugh, do you think his processors can handle the search?” Nya shrugged as the two continued to look on the the small spectacle before them, “Well, despite the rust, the loose wiring and the uh, everything about him, he seems to be in pretty good condition…”

“Yeah, but what could he possibly have on Nadakhan that we haven’t been able to find already in the library-” Echo shot up, a small ‘ping!’ following his movement. “Search complete: Search results of Nadakhan; 2!”

“Two?! That’s-! ” Jay was cut off by an exited Nya. “That’s amazing Echo!” Jay looked back at his friend as though she had grown a second head. “What?! How?!” Nya shot Jay a look of steel, whispering harshly and slowly under her breath. “Jay, we’ve been stuck in this stuffy library for the past 5 hours, and haven’t even found a mere mention of this guys name. Now, we at least have something to go off of.”

Jay held his hands up, hopping that Nya would accept his sign of placation. He turned towards Echo, any idea of refusing the old bot died when he looked at the hopeful expression on his face. Sighing, he decided to humor the guy. “Oh, Alright…” He folded his arms, “So, copper-man, what have you got for us?” 

“I have multiple screen files of news clippings that have the keyword ‘Nadakhan’, and ‘The Complete History of Djinjago!’ Which search result would you like to explore?” Jay looked at Nya with a raised eyebrow, she looked back at him and asked, “Pull up the results of ‘The Complete History of Djinjago’ please.”

“Yeah, what the heck does a dead planet have to do with a Space-Pirate?”

Echo just smiled at the question, “Much! From scanning the passages that reference the name ‘Nadakhan’, it states that “He, Nadakhan, came from a long line of Djinjago royalty, and was the heir apparent to the planet prior to his disownment.” Jay was more than a little surprised that one of the most outrageous sounding rumors he and the others had heard about Nadakhan had turned out to be actual fact. Nya ignored the stupefied look on her friends face and pushed Echo for more details. “So he was Disowned? Do you know why?”

Echo’s smile shrank a bit at the question, his chipper tone diminished a little too. “This is not stated in the text, so I’m afraid I cannot answer this question in the context of ‘The Complete History of the Planet of Djinja-”

Jay cut off the rambling, “Ok, ok, we get it! Yeesh, what else can you tell us about Nadakhan?” The copper robot perked up again, his bright expression returning, “I have a news article that pings the keyword, ‘Nadakhan’, would you like me to-”

“Yes, please!” 

“Understood! I have articles pertaining to robbery, theft, arson, bribery, kidnapping, the planet Alta-” Nya held a hand up at the last word, her interest highly piqued. “Alta? That’s actually not too far from here… What does the article say about Alta?” 

“The passage indicates that the desert planet of Alta was the first known planet that Nadakhan took up residence at when he was banished by the king of Djinjago, and is where the earliest records of his criminal activity begin.” As Jay tried to think of what they could do with this random bit of information, an exited glow took over the whole of Nya’s face. “This is perfect!” 

For the umpteenth time that day, Jay raised an eyebrow at her sudden enthusiasm “It is?” Nya turned to him, taking Jay’s hands into her own, “It is! This is just the lead we’ve been looking for Jay! Think about it, if Alta was the very first place Nadakhan took up shop, then there has to be at least something on him there!” Jay wanted to be as enthused by the revelation as Nya, but he was too mentally exhausted to get his hopes up now, and then later only have them dashed by another dead end of fruitless searching. Carefully, he took his hands back from his friend, “Nya, I’m happy to have a new lead as much as you are, but Nadakhan has been inactive longer than any of us have been alive, how do we know that this wont just end up being like, well” He gave a large gesture towards the entire library, “Here?”

Nya’s face fell for a minute, before hardening to a determined look. “Jay. This is our ONLY shot. We literally have nothing else to go off of… “

“I know that, but-”

She interrupted him again, “I don’t want to waste more time finding the others than we already have Jay!“ She paused before her eyes started to glisten as she looked down. “..I know we’ve been wasting time here, but if there were any other way to find the others, don’t you think I would have tried that by now?” Her hands scrubbed harshly at her cheeks, refusing to look him in the eye. Jay stayed silent for a minute, unsure of what he should say, if he should say anything at all. The two stood like that, before Jay gave the best over dramatic sigh he could, Nya looking up at him in surprise. 

“Well then, I guess we have no choice then do we?” He smiled at her, “We better hurry fast then. I hear the sand storms in Alta a freakishly scary.” Nya cracked a watery grin, wiping anymore stray tears as she teased, “Scarier than a Tiger Widow?” Jay gave her a gentle shove at the low blow, “Oh, shut up! Lets just get going!” Nya only laughed as the two made their way out of the library. As Jay was leaving however, he turned to see Echo was still standing in the doorway.

“Hey,” Jay called to him, “You coming with?” 

Echo looked surprised at the offer. “Do you require more help?”

Jay merely shrugged, “Well, seeing as you just gave us information that we’ve been looking for, for well... Months, if I’m being honest, then I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be needing a bit more help from you.” He paused and looked at the robot hopefully “That is, if you’re willing.” Echo didn’t say anything, until a smile grew across his plated face, chipperly responding “Understood! I look forward to helping you!” Jay grinned at the answer, placing a hand on warm metal as the two walked to the ship. “Glad to have you with us!”

When they got to the former crash site, Jay helped pull Echo onto the deck as he called out to Nya. “How’s everything looking?” Nya didn’t say anything right away, and instead pulled a lever. The low thrum of the Bounty coming back online filled the jungle, and while some of the operating systems were still running slow, everything they needed to make it out of the planets atmosphere was fully operational. Smiling, she called back. “We’re ready to fly whenever!” Jay and Echo walked to her side as she typed in the coordinates to what they hoped would be the break in their bad luck, “Next stop, Planet Alta!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the very first thing I've ever written (or at least published), and while there are a few things that I might change about it in the future, overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out! 
> 
> Seeing as I technically left this at a narrative cliff-hanger, I might continue to post little snippets of this story here and there, depending on the time.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading, and may 2021 be... Significantly better than the last year.


End file.
